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Moffat: The Doctor Could Become a Woman — In Theory

With the end of the ninth season of DOCTOR WHO approaching — as well the imminent departure of Clara (Jenna Coleman) — a lot of folks think it’s time to shake the trees and talk about turning the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) into a woman for his next incarnation.

During the DOCTOR WHO panel at London’s Comic-Con, executive producer and lead writer Steven Moffat was asked if the Doctor could regenerate into a woman. He replied:

“Yes [Long applause]. But there is no vacancy. I’m being really explicit in my answer here because I gave this answer once in San Diego. I was asked if the Doctor could ever be a woman and I said ‘I think there’s a subtext in the show, maybe you should read it.’ And I turned and gestured to Michelle Gomez sitting next to me as Missy, and everyone laughed. This was reported, widely, as me saying the Doctor would never be a woman. So let me just make this very, very clear: There is no vacancy, and it may never happen. However artistically it could work. Commercially, the audience would go with it, we’ve proven that with Missy. And that’s why we did it, frankly. Yes, it can happen. It doesn’t need to happen, but it can, absolutely.”

I’m with Moffat here: It’s possible for the Doctor to switch genders, but he shouldn’t have to just because a vocal segment of fandom demands it. There needs to be a terrific story surrounding that transformation.

As our experiences with Romanadvoratrelundar (Mary Tamm) and Romana II (Lalla Ward) proved, Time Ladies can be just as interesting as Time Lords; it depends on the story and the write.

Mark Gatiss —frequent contributor to the series (including last weekend’s wretched “Sleep No More”) was asked about a female Doctor during a Q&A on Tumblr:

“I think it will be wonderful to have a female Doctor; and there’s absolutely no reason why not, really. “I feel very strongly that it should be because the right person comes along though, not because there is pressure to tick a box. I have a list of potential female Doctors as long as my arm!”